Ecclesiastes 5:8

World English Bible (2000)

If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don't marvel at the matter: for one official is eyed by a higher one; and there are officials over them.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְיִתְר֥וֹן אֶ֖רֶץ בַּכֹּ֣ל *היא **ה֑וּא מֶ֥לֶךְ לְשָׂדֶ֖ה נֶעֱבָֽד׃

Transliteration

And yiṯrôn ʾereṣ in bakkōl hûʾ, meleḵ to śāḏeh neʿĕḇāḏ

Grammar Details

• *yiṯrôn*: noun, masculine singular construct - advantage/profit of
• *ʾereṣ*: noun, feminine singular - land/earth/ground
• *bakkōl*: preposition + definite article + noun, masculine singular - in the all/everything
• *hûʾ*: 3rd person masculine singular pronoun - he/it
• *meleḵ*: noun, masculine singular - king
• *śāḏeh*: noun, masculine singular - field
• *neʿĕḇāḏ*: niphal participle, masculine singular - being served/cultivated/worked

Word Meanings

• *yiṯrôn*: profit/advantage/excess/excellency
• *ʾereṣ*: land/earth/ground/territory/country
• *neʿĕḇāḏ*: being served/worked/cultivated/tilled
• *hûʾ*: he/it (text shows alternate reading between masculine and feminine forms)

Referenced Verses

• Ps 12:5 : 5 "Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says Yahweh; "I will set him in safety from those who malign him."
• Eccl 3:16 : 16 Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.
• Eccl 4:1 : 1 Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
• Ps 82:1 : 1 God presides in the great assembly. He judges among the gods.
• Ps 83:18 : 18 that they may know that you alone, whose name is Yahweh, are the Most High over all the earth. For the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.
• Ps 95:3 : 3 For Yahweh is a great God, a great King above all gods.
• Ps 140:11-12 : 11 An evil speaker won't be established in the earth. Evil will hunt the violent man to overthrow him. 12 I know that Yahweh will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the needy.
• Prov 8:17 : 17 I love those who love me. Those who seek me diligently will find me.
• 1 Kgs 21:19-20 : 19 You shall speak to him, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Have you killed and also taken possession?"' You shall speak to him, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours."'" 20 Ahab said to Elijah, "Have you found me, my enemy?" He answered, "I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh.
• 1 Chr 21:15-16 : 15 God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, "It is enough; now stay your hand." The angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
• Job 20:19-29 : 19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up. 20 "Because he knew no quietness within him, he shall not save anything of that in which he delights. 21 There was nothing left that he didn't devour, therefore his prosperity shall not endure. 22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him. 23 When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating. 24 He shall flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow shall strike him through. 25 He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him. 26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent. 27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity. The earth shall rise up against him. 28 The increase of his house shall depart. They shall rush away in the day of his wrath. 29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God."
• Job 27:8-9 : 8 For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? 9 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him? 10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times? 11 I will teach you about the hand of God. That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal. 12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain? 13 "This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty. 14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. 15 Those who remain of him shall be buried in death. His widows shall make no lamentation. 16 Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay; 17 he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. 18 He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes. 19 He lies down rich, but he shall not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not. 20 Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night. 21 The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place. 22 For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand. 23 Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.
• Ps 10:17-18 : 17 Yahweh, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear, 18 to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that man who is of the earth may terrify no more. For the Chief Musician. By David.
• Ps 55:9 : 9 Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
• Ps 58:10-11 : 10 The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked; 11 so that men shall say, "Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous. Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth." For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "Do Not Destroy." A poem by David, when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.
• Isa 3:15 : 15 What do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor?" says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
• Isa 5:7 : 7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
• Isa 10:5-7 : 5 Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation! 6 I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me will I give him a command to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. 7 However he doesn't mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.
• Isa 10:12 : 12 Therefore it will happen that, when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his haughty looks.
• Isa 37:36 : 36 The angel of Yahweh went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
• Isa 46:10-11 : 10 declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not [yet] done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure; 11 calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country; yes, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it.
• Isa 57:15 : 15 For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
• Isa 59:13-16 : 13 transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 14 Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter. 15 Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. 16 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness, it upheld him.
• Jer 22:17-19 : 17 But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it. 18 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: they shall not lament for him, [saying], Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! They shall not lament for him, [saying] Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! 19 He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
• Ezek 22:6-9 : 6 Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood. 7 In you have they set light by father and mother; in the midst of you have they dealt by oppression with the foreigner; in you have they wronged the fatherless and the widow. 8 You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths. 9 Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood; and in you they have eaten on the mountains: in the midst of you they have committed lewdness. 10 In you have they uncovered their fathers' nakedness; in you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity. 11 One has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in you has humbled his sister, his father's daughter. 12 In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me, says the Lord Yahweh. 13 Behold, therefore, I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been in the midst of you. 14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it.
• Amos 5:12 : 12 For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins-- you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts.
• Amos 6:2-6 : 2 Go to Calneh, and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border? 3 Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; 4 Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; 5 who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David; 6 who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
• Amos 6:12 : 12 Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;
• Amos 8:4-7 : 4 Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail, 5 Saying, 'When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit; 6 that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?'" 7 Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Surely I will never forget any of their works.
• Mic 2:1-3 : 1 Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2 They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 3 Therefore thus says Yahweh: "Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster, from which you will not remove your necks, neither will you walk haughtily; for it is an evil time.
• Mic 2:9 : 9 You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my blessing forever.
• Mic 3:1-4 : 1 I said, "Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn't it for you to know justice? 2 You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones; 3 who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. 4 Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil."
• Mic 3:9-9 : 9 Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity. 10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. 11 Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, "Isn't Yahweh in the midst of us? No disaster will come on us." 12 Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
• Mic 6:10-13 : 10 Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a short ephah that is accursed? 11 Shall I be pure with dishonest scales, and with a bag of deceitful weights? 12 Her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their speech. 13 Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound. I have made you desolate because of your sins.
• Hab 1:2-3 : 2 Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you "Violence!" and will you not save? 3 Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.
• Hab 1:12-13 : 12 Aren't you from everlasting, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will not die. Yahweh, you have appointed him for judgment. You, Rock, have established him to punish. 13 You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,
• Zech 7:9-9 : 9 "Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, 'Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother. 10 Don't oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.' 11 But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear. 12 Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law, and the words which Yahweh of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of Armies. 13 It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen," said Yahweh of Armies;
• Zech 8:6 : 6 Thus says Yahweh of Armies: "If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my eyes?" says Yahweh of Armies.
• Mal 3:5 : 5 I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don't fear me," says Yahweh of Armies.
• Matt 13:41-42 : 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
• Luke 1:32 : 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David,
• Luke 1:35 : 35 The angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.
• Luke 1:76 : 76 And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways,
• Acts 4:27-28 : 27 "For truly, in this city against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 28 to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.
• Acts 12:7-9 : 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side, and woke him up, saying, "Stand up quickly!" His chains fell off from his hands. 8 The angel said to him, "Get dressed and put on your sandals." He did so. He said to him, "Put on your cloak, and follow me." 9 And he went out and followed him. He didn't know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he saw a vision. 10 When they were past the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went out, and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.
• Acts 12:23 : 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn't give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.
• Rom 11:33 : 33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
• Jas 2:13 : 13 For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
• Jas 5:2-7 : 2 Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies. 5 You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn't resist you. 7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain.
• 1 Pet 4:12 : 12 Beloved, don't be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you, to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you.
• 1 John 3:13 : 13 Don't be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.
• Rev 17:6-7 : 6 I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement. 7 The angel said to me, "Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.